Bourdais wins Mexican thriller
Sebastien Bourdais put a bold last-lap pass on pole-sitter Justin Wilson to win the final race of the 2006 Champ Car season
The Newman/Haas Racing driver had already tried round the outside of a damp Peraltada corner at the end of lap 62 before backing off as his car started sliding wide.
However, he maintained the pressure on the RuSPORT driver, despite using up his push-to-pass beforehand, and finally nailed Wilson down the inside on a tight second-gear right-hander.
The cars made brief contact, but Bourdais pulled away to win the last race of Champ Car's 'Lola era'.
Had it not been for the mesmeric battle out front, the star of the race would have been Will Power, who was exceptional when the rain started to fall on lap 26 of the 66-lap event.
The Team Australia driver relentlessly hunted down the second Newman/Haas car of Bruno Junqueira, eventually pressuring the Brazilian into running wide at Turn 1.
In scoring the first podium of his Champ Car career, Power also clinched the series' Rookie of the Year title.
The only man who could have stopped him, CTE Racing-HVM's Dan Clarke, posted the race's only retirement after a mechanical problem.
Behind Junqueira, Alex Tagliani capped a fine day for Team Australia with fifth place, while Nelson Philippe brought CTE Racing some consolation with sixth.
Until the final laps, the Mexican crowds had been left somewhat subdued when their star man Mario Dominguez triggered a shunt as he crossed the start/finish line to start the race.
The Rocketsports driver swerved right, and tried to squeeze between Katherine Legge and the pit-wall, but instead tagged the PKV Racing car, sending it spearing into the wall.
Legge had to make a couple of stops to get her car rectified, but thereafter she put in some stunning lap times that would have seen her finish in the top six without the shunt.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Bourdais Newman/Haas Racing 1h51:31.146 2. Wilson RuSPORT + 3.528 3. Power Team Australia Racing + 46.536 4. Junqueira Newman/Haas Racing + 1:04.023 5. Tagliani Team Australia Racing + 1:18.033 6. Servia PKV Racing + 1:28.745 7. Philippe CTE Racing HVM + 1:29.997 8. Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest Racing + 1 Lap 9. Martínez Forsythe Championship Racing + 1 Lap 10. Rice Forsythe Championship Racing + 1 Lap 11. Zwolsman Mi-Jack Conquest Racing + 1 Lap 12. Pizzonia Rocketsports Racing + 1 Lap 13. Heylen Dale Coyne Racing + 1 Lap 14. Briscoe RuSPORT + 2 Laps 15. Wirth Dale Coyne Racing + 2 Laps 16. Legge PKV Racing + 3 Laps 17. Dominguez Rocketsports Racing + 7 Laps Not Classified/Retirements: Driver Team On Lap Clarke CTE Racing HVM 7
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments